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Bay City Government - 1946 Polk Directory

BAY CITY
"WHERE THE SUMMER TRAILS BEGIN"
(Courtesy Bay City Chamber of Commerce)

Statistical Review

Form of Government - Commission-manager. Population - 1940 U.S. Census, 47,956; local estimate at present, 52,000. Predominate nationalities of foreign born residents: Polish, German and French. Area - 10.5 square miles. Altitude - 604 feet above sea level. Climate - Mean annual temperature, 52 degrees F.; average annual rainfall, 30 inches. Parks - 10, with total of 41.2 acres, valued at $261,705. Assessed Valuation - $50,380,560, with $33.86 per $1,000 tax rate. Bonded Debt - $217,644.66. Financial Data - 3 banks and 1 trust company, with total deposits of $52,897,256 (June 30, 1945) and total resources of $57, 153,163 (June 30, 1945). 1 building and loan association, with assets of $4,213,425.10 (June 30, 1945). Telephone in Service - 13,696. Churches - 61, representing 24 denomination. Industry - Chief industries of city surrounding territory: Manufacturing, fishing and agriculture. 100 manufacturing establishments, employing 9,155 men. Principal manufactured products: Automobile accessories and parts, steel ships, coal products, sugar, cranes, transformers, welding machines, castings, prefabricated houses, cement, powered shovels and knit goods. Trade Area - Extends 60 miles east, 40 miles west and 220 miles north. Newspapers - 1 daily and Sunday and 1 weekly. Radio Station - WBCM Hotels - 8, with total of 450 rooms. Railroads - 4, New York Central, Pere Marquette, Grand Trunk Canadian National, and Detroit & Mackinac. Buslines - 2; Balcer Bros Motor Coach Co. and Doran Bus Co. Airports - 1, municipal, Michigan Central Airlines. Amusements - Largest auditorium in city seats 1,200 persons. 10 moving-picture theatres with total seating capacity of 7,582 persons. 1 legitimate theatre, with seating capacity of 930 persons. 2 golf courses. Hospitals - 3, with total of 300 beds. Education - 17 public schools, 1 junior college, 1 senior high school and 1 junior high school. 14 parochial schools. Number of pupils in public schools, 7,520; in parochial schools, 4,114. Number of teachers in public schools, 290; in parochial, 101. Value of public school property, including Bay City Junior College, $8,000,000. Public Libraries - 4, with total of 141,748 volumes. City Statistics - Total street mileage, 170, with 98 miles paved. Miles of gas mains, 145; sewers 180. Number of water meters, 13,700; light meters, 16,600; gas meters, 13,000. Capacity of water works, 14,000,000 gallons; daily average pumpage, 5,297,907 gallons; miles of mains, 150; value of plant, $4,879,300. Fire department has 92 men, with 7 stations and 16 pieces of motor equipment. Value of fire department property, $185,040. Police department has 60 men with 1 station and 10 pieces of motor equipment. Birth rate - 23.3 per 1,000; death rate, 9.7 per 1000.

General Review.

Modern Bay City, with a population of 52,000 and sprung from the roots of an international reputation in lumbering, is a prominent spoke in the industrial wheel of Michigan. The city has all the basic features of a manufacturing center with none of the customary drawbacks. Here industry is diversified. Brooms and locomotive cranes, potato chips and automobile and airplane parts, steel ships and silk stockings, magnesium castings and peanut butter, cigars and electric welding machines, are only a few of the things manufactured. Transportation facilities embrace four railroads -- the Michigan Central, Pere Marquette, Grand Trunk and Detroit & Mackinac; several major trucking lines; an air taxi service north and south; and Saginaw River harbor, on Saginaw Bay, an arm of Lake Huron, is a regular port of call for the largest freighters on the Great Lakes. Bay City, with Saginaw and Midland and the Civil Aeronautics Administration, has built a super airport equidistant from the three cities at Freeland, at a cost of several million dollars. Bay City's background is rich and picturesque. Nine years ago, in 1937, the city observed its 100th birthday anniversary. This was once the camping ground of the Chippewa Indians, part of Saginaw Valley, then nestled in the midst of fruitful pine land. The cuttings of these forests formed an industry of immense proportions for those times and earned for Bay City the title "Lumber Queen of the World." Many colorful chapters of dynamic events in the history of logging in Michigan were written in and around early Bay City. When lumbering was at its height, more than 40 sawmills were located on the river banks. Now all but one have gone, to be replaced by other manufacturing plants. Bay is the governmental seat of Bay County, a high productive agricultural area that features, among other things, sugar beets. The sugar beet refinery here is the largest east of the Mississippi. Beans, corn, oats, rye and wheat also are feature crops. The growing of extra fine melons, tomatoes and other produce makes this the gardening spot of Michigan, and an important source of supply for many of the larger cities of the Middle West. Bay City is not a town of portable citizens, sometimes called "Floaters." It is a city of thrifty home-owners (approximately 80%) who take justifiable pride in building their community into a more pleasant and profitable place in which to live. Bay City is the portal of the famed tourist playground of northern Michigan -- summer and winter. Hereabouts are the best boating, bathing, fishing, hunting and camping. The Michigan State Park on the bay shore, beautified to emphasize nature's work there, is second to none, and is popular with hundreds of thousands from all over the land. Colonies of cottages skirt the water's edge for miles up and down the shore. With an area of 10.5 square miles, Bay City has the modern equipment of the modern city. Its $2,000,000 filtration plant supplies drinking water "to the queen's taste." Its $2,200,000 public high school and junior college are keystones of educational facilities that also include 14 parochial schools. Wide, well-lighted streets and boulevards that are generously shaded by great trees are sources of convenience, comfort and pleasure which Bay City has not overlooked in its march of progress. Through its Chamber of Commerce, with headquarters on the Wenonah Hotel mezzanine, Bay City is shaping its course toward steady, healthy, well-balance progress and the worth-while dividends of diversified community development.

Miscellaneous Information

GOVERNMENT CITY City Hall nw cor Washington av and 10th Charter election first Monday in April of each year The Mayor serves two years, the Comptroller, the Treasurer and the Clerk subject to appointment Officers Mayor - M Raleigh Rabedioux Manager - J F Parkinson Comptroller - Oscar A Kasemeyer Treasurer - A. Robt Gray City Clerk - Jas H Gates Police Judge - David R Louis Attorney - Wm J Williams Engineer - Edw Wilhelm Assessor - Geo MacPhail Purchasing Agent - Herbert S Locks Chemist - Louis B Harrison Chief Fire Dept - Joseph L Trudell Supt of Police - Frank W Anderson Health Officer - Robert F Hall Meat & Food Inspector - Dan J McDonnell Street Commission - John K Zielinski Boiler Inspector - Frederick Saunders Building Inspector & Supt of Bridges - Jas Douglas Director of Public Works - Thos Guili Dog Warden - Anthony Grzegorczyk Plumbing Inspector - Paul F Benstein Harbor Master - Frank W Anderson Supt of Electric Light & Water Works - Alex Kryzminski chf eng Electrical Inspector - Roy E Larkin Milk Sanitarian, Heath Dept - John Sherbeck Supt of Parks & Cemeteries - Louis A Eichhorn City Commissioners First District - John E Morrison Second District - Berthold R Hahn Third District - Chas F Hamilton Fourth District - Wm Cameron Fifth District - Casimer Jablonski Sixth District - Alex Bender Seventh District - Oscar C Schmidt Eighth District - Harold Alexander Ninth District - Myles J Rabedious

City Election Commision John G Knopp, John W Gray, Oscar C Boucher Board of Appeals (City) Joseph L Trudell chairman, Edw Wilhelm sec, James Douglas, Dr Robt F Hall, J F Parkinson Board of Appeals (Zoning) Jerry T Logie, Benj Susman, J W Gray, Dan Rowley, Harry Randall Board of Health Dr Robt F Hall, sec and health officer; Dr G M Brown, Dr Edwin C Miller, Dr Chas L Hess, Dr Kent Alcorn, members City Planning Commission Ronald K McGillivary, planning engineer; Earl T Shaw, Wm G List, Mrs Hazel Hewitt, Wm H Tomlinson, Joseph C Goddeyne, res planner Board of Review Mayor M Raleigh Rabedious chairman ex-officio; members; all commissioners Board of Trustees of the Bay City Public Library Elected by Board of Education Frank C Learman chairman, Mrs Jean R Ballard, Frank E Merritt, Louis B Harrison, Benj Klager, Dr Wm Kerr, Archibald H mcMillan, Isabel A Ballou sec and librarian; location of public library, Center av and Jackson, South End Branch 903 31st Board of Trustees of the Sage Public Library S M Powrie pres. Benj Klager, L. Curtis Fox, Leslie Hale, Arth Cansfield, J S Risser, Wm T Tomlinson, Molly M Gilbert sec and librarian; location of library Midland and Wenona (WS) Polic Department Headquarters, City Hall Frank W Anderson, superintendent Edward M Trepkowski, captain Wm S Rosebush, lieutenant Franklin E Simons, radio eng Eleanor L Olson, policewoman Wm S Rosebush, traffic lieutenant Fire Department Headquarters 500-02 Adams Chief - Joseph L Trudell 1st Asst Chief - Wm H Reif 2nd Asst Chief - Lawrence A Schepper